Mar 22, 2024 - Business

Trump's social media company finally gets its chance to go public

Dan Primack

Illustration of a hand placing the Truth social app icon in a ballot box. — Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

Digital World Acquisition Corp. shareholders on Friday will vote on its proposed merger with Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social. If successful, TMTG could become a publicly listed company by as early as next week.

Why it matters: This is the potential end to a multiyear saga that's included civil lawsuits, criminal lawsuits, closing extensions, and vote postponements.

For timing context, when DWAC first agreed to buy TMTG, Twitter was still a public company that viewed Elon Musk as little more than a power user.

The intrigue: DWAC this week sued former CEO Patrick Orlando, in an effort to force him to vote his 14.77% stake in favor of the merger.

Orlando hasn't yet shown his cards, except to say he'll be at the shareholder meeting when it begins at 10am ET on Friday.

The bottom line: TMTG could become the meme-iest of all meme stocks, an unprofitable social media company with billions in value on just single-digit millions in revenue.

It also could become a financial lifeline for Donald Trump, although he'd still be subject to lockup restrictions and questions about the depth of market liquidity.

Go deeper: Reddit vs. Truth Social, a tale of two listings

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Trump's social media company finally gets its chance to go public

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